Take 4: Jordan's water and energy shortage will be history by 2022

Good news. All Jordan's water woes will be over by 2022. This is the message I was left with while leaving the Ministry of Water. I went there earlier this morning to seek answers to very simple questions, what caused the severity of Jordan's extreme water shortage, and what is the solution.

The answer to the first question, as it came from the head of communications at the ministry, Adnan al Zouby, was simple and not totally unexpected: drastic population growth. Since 1948, Jordan recieved millions of refugees from Palestine, Iraq, and other countries in the region. Those usually came in groups over 100,000, and were immediately adding a strain on infrastructure and resources. More recently, since 2003, Jordan recieved a number of up to 1.5 million so called refugees - and huge development projects in the field of real-estate, hotel and tourism, etc, added also to this strain.

The solution to this problem - apart from the usual water saving business and waste water reuse is three fold: pumping water out of the disi aquifer in the south (starting 2013), which is a temporary solution until Jordan is able to finish linking the Red Sea to the Dead Sea, desalinating water along the way, creating hydro-energy and using waste water to cool a nuclear power reactor under the way - which in turn will provide enough energy for the desalination processes.

The Jordan Red Sea project is part two, as explained here. The third part would be linking this project with Israel and Palestinian Territories for optimal water sharing. By 2022, the three projects should be done and practical.

Meanwhile, or until the first project is completely operational, Jordanians could expect to recieve half as much water as they do today, or recieve water to their home for a few hours every second week, as opposed to every week now.

This means that both Nestle's Pure Life, and Pepsi Co's Aquafina will continue to enjoy providing clean water to about one third of the water bottle market. As the quality of water provided in these projects is another issue that will not be solved by 2022.

Tomorrow I am interviewing a journalist who will give me an explanation to what this means for the average household. And on Thursday, I will be joining others to visit the Disi project site.